Former Rwandan radio chief transferred for UN trial on genocide charges

23 September 2005 

A member of the steering committee of Rwanda’s Radio Télévision Libre des Milles Collines (RTLM), a privately-owned company nicknamed “Radio Machete” for its broadcasts inciting listeners to commit murder, was transferred today to the detention facility of the United Nations tribunal in Tanzania, facing charges of involvement in the 1994 genocide.

Joseph Serugendo, 52, was arrested last Friday in Libreville, Gabon, at the request of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), bringing to 71 the number of accused the Tribunal has arrested.

The former Technical Chief of Radio Rwanda and RTLM is charged with five counts of conspiracy to commit genocide, genocide, complicity in genocide, direct and public incitement to commit genocide and persecution as a crime against humanity, ICTR said.

Mr. Serugendo is alleged to have acted in concert with others, including Ferdinand Nahimana, Jean-Bosco Barayagwiza, Phocas Habimana and Félicien Kabuga, to organize and conduct the genocide in Rwanda, it said.

Mr. Nahimana, founder of RTLM, and Mr. Barayagwiza, an RTLM board member, and Hassan Ngeze, the chief editor of a newspaper called Kangura, were convicted in December 2003 in connection with the genocide.